


The Lull Between Battles

by Orison



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Aftermath of a Case, Angst and Feels, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Whumptober 2020, a little bit of McDanno if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26820154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orison/pseuds/Orison
Summary: A short scene loosely based on the ‘Forced to their knees’ / ‘Held at gunpoint’ prompts of day #3’s Whumptober.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 56
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	The Lull Between Battles

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I don't think I've ever written such a short story before, and I'm not even sure it qualifies for Whumptober since I'm not really hurting the boys... physically, at least. It all started with an image, and the idea to focus on just one moment in time. Let me know if you like it.

***

There was blood on his face.

Steve could feel it marking his skin. 

Smell the coppery scent of it. 

Taste it on his lips. 

It made his stomach churn, sparking a bout of nausea that quickly spread throughout his body. Didn’t matter how many people he had killed, the thought of someone else’s bodily fluids on him was something he’d never get over. 

Around him the air was still, as if time had stopped and the whole world was no longer turning.

It only lasted a moment. With the next beat of his racing heart silence became chaos, and the room he was in got swarmed with SWAT and HPD officers, weapons drawn, scanning the space for targets to hit.

Steve did his best to tune them all out. He turned his head, his gaze searching for the only person he needed to see.

“Danny...” he whispered, looking into his partner’s eyes.

They were both down on their knees, stripped of their vests and guns, hands still frozen mid-air in a surrendering gesture. 

“I’m good,” Danny replied in a shaky voice. “We’re good.”

One moment they were being held at gunpoint and the next the man responsible for it was sprawled to the ground, arms outstretched, killed by a silent shot they had both relied on but never saw coming.

Slowly, as a strange kind of numbness seeped into his bones, Steve stood up. His ears were ringing and he could feel the adrenaline fading from his system, leaving him unbalanced.

The floor tilted ominously beneath his feet.

He licked his lips without even realizing it and almost recoiled at the taste of the foreign blood on his tongue. Squeezing his eyes shut, he wiped a hand over his mouth. It spread the stains even wider.

Two paramedics rushed in, carrying bags of equipment and a portable stretcher. But there was no one to help. The man who had tried to kill them had died before he’d hit the ground. 

One of them handed him some gauze to wipe off the blood. Steve eagerly accepted it. Even if he couldn’t see it, the thought of it was making him sick.

Trying to shake it off, he offered his free hand to Danny and helped him to his feet, wincing in sympathy at his painful groan when his bad knee protested the position they’d been forced in. 

Their eyes met, but neither of them said a word. 

Steve’s fingers stayed curled around Danny’s wrist and they just stood there amidst the crowd of uniforms, oblivious to the world around them, processing the events that had almost claimed their lives and the timely intervention that had spared them.

A few minutes —but it might as well have been hours later, Danny reached out to get the gauze from Steve’s hand and started cleaning his face.

Steve closed his eyes again, reveling into his friend’s gentle touch. Focusing on his breathing, he let his mind wander out of the warehouse and to the strip of beach behind his house until the image of him and Danny sitting by the ocean replaced the gun being pointed at his head and the man’s body jerking from the shot and spilling blood all over him.

“You alright, Sir?” Junior’s voice over the comm startled him, bringing him back to the present. It was soft and full of concern. 

“Yeah,” Steve replied gratefully. “Thanks, man.” 

If it wasn’t for the young SEAL’s sniper ability those paramedics would’ve dragged them out into body bags.

“I owe you one,” Danny echoed beside him. He had tossed the bloodied gauze at his feet but his left hand was still cupping the back of Steve’s neck. 

“You’re welcome, Sir,” they heard him say. 

Always zealous, always polite. 

In the next moment, the rest of the team seemed to materialize out of thin air. 

Worried gazes studied them. Hands, yearning to touch, hovered just inches away.

Steve attempted a reassuring smile. It came out more like a grimace.

“We’re fine, guys. It’s all good,” Danny intercepted, sliding one arm around Steve's waist to steer him away before he could prove to everyone just how shaken he was.

Steve wrapped his own arm around his partner’s shoulders, and with one last look at the man who had been seconds away from killing Danny in front of his very eyes, allowed him to lead him outside.

“You okay?” Danny asked as they came to a stop by one of the SWAT trucks, its massive frame concealing them from unwanted views.

Steve breathed in the fresh, salty air. He could smell the ocean nearby, and felt reinvigorated just by standing close to it. “Yeah,” he said, hoping to sound convincing. 

The answer didn’t fool Danny, who had always read him like an open book.

“I’m alright, Steve. It’s over.”

 _Not because of me_ , he was about to say when he realized that Lou had followed them outside. 

“Steve... I’m sorry man, but the Governor wants to be debriefed.”

Steve nodded. 

The last thing he wanted was to face Mahoe and relieve those moments, but disobeying orders wasn’t an option and he knew he had to do what she asked. 

He leaned in and placed his hand on Danny’s forearm. “I’ll see you at home,” he whispered, rubbing the skin of the other man’s wrist with his thumb. 

Then he squared his shoulders, readied himself for another battle and walked away.

THE END


End file.
